We are tall, short, young, old, black, asian, white, thin, fat, male, female, hairy, bald, British, Australian, American, African etc etc etc..... ....but we all love Sunderland in equal measure.
Coming from Ireland which like many countries across the world have a large support/interest in the premier league. One question I always find amusing is "why Sunderland" which I'm usually quite happy to answer (Family Connections). But I don't like it coming from what I would class as glory hunters i.e. large sections of people who follow a team for nothing other than their success something which us Sunderland fans could never be labeled with. But looking at the bigger picture if Sunderland start to lure large numbers of so called glory hunters I wouldn't be to hard on them (unless I couldn't get a ticket) as it means the obvious.
For most of footballs long history.....the great game has been a working class game!In the early days most of these football supporters were on subsistance wages with little free time.Foootball was a release from the daily grind it was cheap and more importantly on their doorstep.The concept of someone living in sunderland would support man u would be completely alien .In simple terms if you lived in an area you simply followed your local team and lots of chaps( as it was mostly chaps)if they lived close to two teams simply followed both and went to the match simply based on who was playing at home.Today a little boy living in the bush in Africa or a concrete jungle in Japan can choose to supportany team such as man u or liverpool and thats globilisation for you (but it is usually based on glory).For my part ! was born in sunderland,for a few months i dallied with the sky blues of man city when i was about 11yrs old but common sense prevailed or more likely social pressures as going to the match involved more than watching the game it was part of life to go with your mates to talk about it all week at school it was a socially agreed group phenomenon .I was a safc supporter because i was born in sunderland and had no family reasons not to support them,there wasnt really a choice.I am not a better supporter than someone not born in the local area but saying that i cannot understand why someone living in say leeds would want to choose support safc( unless for family reasons)you simply support your local team or you may be a glory hunter or in the case of safc support suffering from a delusional psychosis as there aint no glory in supporting the mighty red and white.
i cannot understand why someone living in say leeds would want to choose support safc( unless for family reasons)you simply support your local team Now I'm not quite sure how that would work, that's more or less like saying teams will only have support from the people who live within the area. How would team's survive, particularly in smaller area's. Now I know my support is not up to much living so far away, the only games I can manage to see are when I'm back in the UK. This season only being L'pool (A) and Swansea (A) assuming I can get ticket's of course! But the 'support the club, within the area you live in' just doesn't make sense. I cannot think of many of the friends I knew, (from where I grew up) supporting or following their local team, it was mainly a very mixed bunch. Just my opinion.
trouble n stripes.... you prove my point the world has changed,i was born in sunderland all my mates went to the match and the possibility of supporting say leeds would not enter their heads.when i was 12 leeds,liverpoo,arsnal, and van city were the best in the land and perhaps one or two lads would choose to support these but the mass would support sunderland i hesitate to say choose because it was not really a choice it was automatic.... simply a part of the maturation process of a working class kid growing up in fulwell.Why would you not support your local team or should i say nearest....as i write this i realise that i am begining to sound like my father talking about the war and in reality it is a cry is for a lost land and time, the old days when i was young.There was more to supporting sunderland than the match itself it was a sort of right of passage, a shared experience that by your comments is now a thing of the past which saddens me....everyone who supports sunderland deserves a medal and the medal would be the same..... there are no value judgements on supporting safc.Can you answer this why would a boy brought up in sunderland choose to support say plymouth(no family ties to plymouth.its never really a minnow is it its usually one of the top four isnt it)over sunderland.
